Armed vs Unarmed Melee combat

[The Dark]

Something I just noticed - as a former (low-level) practitioner of both, I'm not certain I'd have Karate have a higher kick modifier than Tae Kwon Do. TKD has more of an emphasis on swift and high kicks, with a narrow stance to increase speed, while karate tends to use a wider stance to emphasize stability and more of a balance between hand and foot strikes.

[rcaf_777]

No Krav Maga?

[The Dark]

Originally Posted by rcaf_777

No Krav Maga?

Other than the listing for Krav Maga between Kick Boxing and Kung Fu (Northern Style)?

(edit: this came off a bit snarkier than I intended - it was meant to be a bit of a playful pointing-out that it is in the document)

[Targan]

Originally Posted by The Dark

Something I just noticed - as a former (low-level) practitioner of both, I'm not certain I'd have Karate have a higher kick modifier than Tae Kwon Do.

100% agree. TKD is all about the kicking (to the detriment of other aspects unfortunately).

[The Dark]

One other "weapon" that might be worth adding is a sap glove, the kind with powdered metal over the fingers and sometimes the whole back of the hand. They should probably be a bit of a weaker form of the brass knuckles - possibly +1 to STR and halve damage from hitting armor, but with a -1 penalty to DEX tasks instead of them being impossible.

[swaghauler]

We are now test playing a rules variant that makes Parrying a Skill-Based system. When you roll for a Parry, you record how far UNDER the needed target number you rolled (ie if you need a 12 and roll a 9, you are 3 under). This number is added to 1 (for a successful roll) to determine the number of DAMAGE DICE your parry deflected. So the roll above would deflect 4 DICE of Damage. Any remaining Damage will "pass through" the Defender's Parry and cause damage appropriately. This means that the more difficult to parry with weapons (like small knives) also won't stop as much damage as the larger (and easier to parry with) weapons.

Shields:

Whether improvised or actual shields, the following categories describe game shields.

Bucklers: This includes Bracers as well as small "improvised" parrying devices (like a huge beer stein). This device only protects the forearm during @Passive Warding (10 or less on an Arm hit). *Parry: Fairly Difficult (Skill X 0.75).

Small Shields: This includes most Shields that can cover the Arm and ONE additional location (10 or less) when @Warding. Small shields include garbage can lids (ala Escape From New York). Parry: Average (Skill X 1).

Medium Shields: This is the typically sized Greek or Medieval Shield which will @Ward the Arm and EITHER ONE Additional Location (19 or less) OR TWO Additional Locations (at 10 or less) in a fight. The choice to Ward One or Two locations is made by the Defender. Parry: Routine (Skill X1.5).

Large Shields: This is typical of a Spartan Shield or a modern-day Riot Shield. It can @Passively Ward the Arm and ONE location totally (19 or less), and TWO additional locations partially (10 or less). Parry: Easy (Skill X 2).

Very Large Shield: This is typical of a Mantlet, Roman Scutum, or a Large Riot Shield. It will @Passively Ward up to five locations. It will totally cover (19 or less) the Arm AND TWO Locations and partially cover an ADDITIONAL TWO Locations (10 or less). Parry: Easy (Skill X 2).

@Passive Warding: This is when you simply hold a shield to cover a location WITHOUT actively parrying with that shield. The numbers listed in parentheses are the chance that the attack will hit the shield instead.

*Fairly Difficult: This is a new Skill Difficulty Level that we have begun to use in our most recent games. As we constantly shift Difficulty Levels in response to modifiers during play (ie Target Movement, Lighting or any other modifier that will reduce the chance of success), we have more of them than the RAW Twilight2000 used. This brings our Skill Difficulty Ratings up to:

Very Easy: (Skill X 3)
Easy: (Skill X2)
Routine: (Skill X 1.5)
Average: (Skill x 1)
Fairly Difficulty: (Skill X 0.75)
Difficult: (Skill X 0.5)
Formidable: (Skill X 0.25)
Impossible: (Skill X 0.1)

[swaghauler]

As I have stated before, I use a Skill System that is a TW2K13/V2.2 hybrid system. I use the TW2K13 QUALIFICATIONS system due to its elegance in expanding the Skill List without creating a huge "Skill Tree." For those who are unfamiliar with Qualifications, they are essentially a "Skill within a Skill." You buy them just like other Skills but they are limited by the "Parent Skill" that they originate from. For example, ALL Surgeons are Doctors BUT NOT ALL Doctors are Surgeons. Some other examples of Qualifications include:

-The Heavy Qualification (over 5-ton) of Wheeled Vehicle Driver.
-The Rebreather Qualification of Scuba.
-The Hacking Qualification of Computer Ops.
-The Remote & Multi-Engine Qualifications of Pilot.
-The EOD & Warhead Qualifications of Demolitions.

I also have Qualifications for Hand-To-Hand Combat. Those Qualifications include Wrestling, Boxing, and Martial Arts. While some of the Qualifications do allow you to do more damage than HTH, I was thinking of adding in some Special Techniques like Blind Fighting, Instant Stand, Powerful Blow, or pain Compliancy Hold. These Special Techniques (of which I have compiled roughly a dozen general Techniques) would add a bit of variety to HTH Combat.

My idea would be to allow a player to select ONE Special Technique for each Level of Skill in a Qualification above 0 (which is essentially "familiarization" of a Skill). That Special Technique would start at a Skill level 0 ("familiarization") and advance in Level as the Qualification advances. Thus a person with a Qualification of 4 in Boxing could have up to 4 Special Techniques with a Skill Level of 0 thru 3, depending on the order they were taken in. The fighter would use the Technique's Skill Level when attempting it and each different Qualification would have 3-5 (1D3+2) Techniques to choose from. This would allow you to emulate the Techniques of various Martial Arts such as Aikido, Boxing, Karate, and Judo.

Has anyone else ever experimented with adding Special Maneuvers or Techniques to Twilight2000?

[The Dark]

Originally Posted by swaghauler

We are now test playing a rules variant that makes Parrying a Skill-Based system. When you roll for a Parry, you record how far UNDER the needed target number you rolled (ie if you need a 12 and roll a 9, you are 3 under). This number is added to 1 (for a successful roll) to determine the number of DAMAGE DICE your parry deflected. So the roll above would deflect 4 DICE of Damage. Any remaining Damage will "pass through" the Defender's Parry and cause damage appropriately. This means that the more difficult to parry with weapons (like small knives) also won't stop as much damage as the larger (and easier to parry with) weapons.

I like the idea of different shields having varying levels of protection. For people using the book damage system, I think a fair substitute would be for each point of success to absorb 2 points of damage (equivalent to parenthetical AV (1) from TNE).

[swaghauler]

Originally Posted by The Dark

I like the idea of different shields having varying levels of protection. For people using the book damage system, I think a fair substitute would be for each point of success to absorb 2 points of damage (equivalent to parenthetical AV (1) from TNE).

The system for shields above is the percentage of the location covered if you PASSIVELY WARD that location without actively parrying. I didn't list any AVs because they vary so greatly from object to object.

Active Parries:

Actively parrying takes an ACTION@ to do and the reason the system drops damage dice based on the skill roll is due to the fact that a skilled defender can greatly reduce damage using even a makeshift device to partially deflect a blow.
For an example of an ACTIVE PARRY: Jason Bourne grabs the local phonebook which is approximately 1" thick and made of bound paper. His assailant is armed with an 8" butcher knife and attempts to stab him. Jason expertly deflects the knife by striking the "flat" of the blade with the phone book's spine or by striking his attacker's wrist (also using the spine). The knife may leave a "gash" in the phonebook's spine but is completely deflected.

Passive Warding:

Passive warding takes no @ACTIONS and the player must specify what locations his character is Warding. If the location is hit, the "Shield" protects on the Warding Roll or lower. The AV depends on the "shield" being used.
For an example of a PASSIVE WARD: Jason Bourne holds the phonebook from the previous example in front of him to Ward his head. This book as an AV of (2)... the parenthesis indicating the number of POINTS (not Dice) of Damage the book will absorb. His attacker rolls his attack and succeeds. He hits Jason in the head. On a roll of 10 or less, the book will absorb 2 points of Damage from his attacker's Damage roll.

This is the difference between Parrying and Warding.

@ = I am now using a simplified "ACTIONS" system where each action represents 1 Second's worth of activity. Each SECOND in a combat round is roughly equal to an Initiative Step. Various activities can take different numbers of ACTIONS. To determine the number of ACTIONS each character gets during a combat round, follow the steps below:

1) Roll 1D6 and add this to the Character's Initiative Score (giving a total from 2-12).
2) Subtract any modifiers from this total for things like Fatigue and Wounds.
3) Divide the remaining total by 2 and ALWAYS ROUND UP. This is the number of ACTIONS that the character has for that round. Each ACTION is 1 Second AND 1 Initiative STEP.

EXAMPLE: Joe has a 4 Initiative and rolls a 3 for a total score of 7. He is Lightly Wounded (-1) and now has a total score of 6. Dividing 6 by 2 equals 3. Joe has 3 ACTIONS for this combat round. I would give Joe three poker chips and he would surrender them as he performed his actions in the various Initiative Steps.